Microsoft’s new Xbox Series X model, which does not have discs, went on sale on October 15. This model, which is different in appearance with its white color and the absence of a disc drive, has a completely renewed interior design. Microsoft redesigned the motherboard of the white Series X and the new 2 TB capacity models, reduced the system on chip (SoC) size to 6 nm and switched to a new cooling solution.
YouTuber Austin Evans showed off these changes in a video where he examined the insides of the new models , and noted that the shrunken chip means the new models of the Xbox Series X use about 10 watts less power when idle than the original model.
The motherboard of the new Series X models has been completely reworked. Many components on the motherboard have been simplified, reduced in size or moved to different locations. The SSD’s cover is gone and the digital Series X model has an empty space where the disk drive used to be. Adding a disk drive later is also not possible, as the necessary connection points for the drive have to be soldered.
The cooling system has also been redesigned for the updated 6nm chip. The vapor chamber from the original model is gone, and Microsoft is using a more traditional copper heat pipe design. However, Evans noted that the exhaust temperature and noise levels on the new Series X models remain the same as the original model.
According to Evans’ findings, the first Series X models used around 61 watts of power when idle in the main Xbox menu. However, this drops to around 51 watts in the new 2TB special edition and just 38 watts in the digital Xbox Series X model. During gaming, the original Xbox Series X used 167 watts, while the model without discs used 156 watts and the 2TB model used 151 watts.
Microsoft’s data centers are equipped with hardware similar to the Xbox Series X.
While a 16-watt drop may not seem like much, it will have a significant impact on the energy usage of Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming platform. Microsoft uses Series X-like hardware in its data centers, and these smaller chips and a redesigned cooling system could allow cloud gaming servers to run more efficiently.
Ultimately, these changes to the internals of the new Series X models could make it more cost-effective for Microsoft to produce these consoles and make operating cloud gaming servers more efficient.
